History Resource Cupboard – lessons and resources for schools

History Resource Cupboard - lessons and resources for schools

Teaching ideas

Edexcel 9-1 GCSE history exam question bookmarks

Bookmarks

 Bookmarks. By the end of your GCSE course it is helpful that your students know exactly what is required of them when it comes to answering different question types. As you may know, teaching students just to pass the test is not why we entered the teaching profession. We want[…]

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Using knowledge to make meaning

Night of the Long Knives

The debate whimpers on. Knowledge and direct instruction against progress teaching ideas. This debate has been going on since the arguments over the birth of GCSE and before. Historical knowledge is crucially important – lets not forget it.  But so is the ability to use this knowledge well. We have[…]

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Weimar Germany Revision Jenga with Resources

Wiemar republic

Revision / re-visiting information to make it stick is hugely important. Revising knowledge regularly will help your students remember better. Fact. To help with this process why not play Weimar Germany revision Jenga in your classroom? The resources are available here for you to download. If you want to find out how[…]

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Creating curiosity: Ten stimulating starts to enquiries

If we are to create outstanding learning and learners, we need to engage our pupils to become curious in the classroom.  One way to help engage learners and create curiosity is ensure that all enquiries that start in an intriguing and stimulating way. This isn’t a new and revelationary idea. Good teachers[…]

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Five top activities with pictures in the history classroom

Photographs

We love to use images in our lessons – always have done. Ever since we could photocopy them from books, print them onto sheets of paper and put them in front of kids we have used them. There are hundreds of possibilities for using pictures. Here are our five top picture activities[…]

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20 Engaging End Products for the History Classroom

Are you bored of setting work that ends up in an extended piece of writing? An essay? An ‘important assessment’? An exam answer? When you tell your class this do they groan and look deflated? Those kids who can’t be bothered don’t bother. You’re marking load increases as your motivation to[…]

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The Board Race Game to enliven GCSE judgement questions

The best professional development I have ever had is to work alongside a creative colleague. Just by sitting down for 20 minutes and discussing your lessons for the next day can inspire ideas, or it can reveal fab teaching strategies that you never thought of. In my career I have[…]

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Your 7 step guide to Jenga for the history classroom

Here is your 7 step guide to  Jenga for the history classroom. This is a great idea for revision or for cementing that key  knowledge that needs to be remembered. The idea is simple. Kids play jenga and revise / learn.  It really is all about having fun and learning. What[…]

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The peasant farming game

It is probably out of fashion at the moment to suggest such crazy ideas as kids having fun in your lessons. Playing the peasant farming game? Don’t be so ridiculous  – where is the evidence of  exceptional progress by all in the first 10 minutes your SLT may well cry![…]

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Games the history classroom: The wall of misconception

Games in the history classroom: The wall of misconception. This is a great idea to use as a mini plenary to check learning in a fun and active way. The class needs to be armed with knowledge for this activity to work.  You may have taught them does Richard the[…]

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Games for the history classroom: Stepping stones

As you know, we love to use games for the history classroom. Not only are games engaging and fun, they also help cement learning and make knowledge stick. This idea is simple yet highly effective. The unstoppable Neil Bates uses it when doing class revision for GCSE history. It is called[…]

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Double continuums to sharpen student’s historical thinking

We would recommend that you sometimes use double continuums to sharpen your student’s historical thinking. This neat idea is really simple. We all want to make our students think more. And I have found over the years that many don’t actually like to think. So this neat idea has helped[…]

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Creating overviews at GCSE

Do you teach a thematic study at GCSE? Of course you do. I would recommend that you start off with a tried and tested overview. Something that Alec Fisher and I perfected when we worked together for 10 years.  We believed and still do, that if you start a course or[…]

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GCSE exam technique placemats

One thing we know works in teaching students to do well in GCSE history exams, is preparing them to write well. Sounds so simple yet we often automatically think our students have this skill because they have arrived in year 10. Unfortunately, this assumption is often wrong!! So how do[…]

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1900 -1930s Tarsia

At time of writing I am about to observed by my Head with a potentially challenging year 9 class. The lesson I am going to teach them is the second half of the fab lesson on the Hitler Youth from our Germany package. However, one of my aims of the[…]

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Russian Revolution easy tarsia

Lenin

At the time of writing I have been working with a difficult year 9 class. I have just taken them over and they needed to be more engaged as they struggle to listen at the start of a lesson. In my experience this is a come problem for schools that[…]

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Key history terms and definitions

Understanding historical terminology is hugely important if your students are going to make progress in their historical thinking. We need to build our student’s academic literacy. Use this power point download to either create a large display in your class, or to simply use it to help students with the key[…]

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